It didn't take long for Adam and Evelyn to reach Frieden. Adam had two reasons to come to Frieden. One was to warn Segen of what was actually going on with the many recent wars. The other was to get some proper medicine for Evelyn's hands. Even though they were dragons, properly treating their wounds was a must to get them to heal faster and correctly.
Adam and Evelyn had landed a fair distance away from Frieden before walking the rest of way there. Segen's house was a good ways into the city, so Adam decided to stop by the market district first. There was a healer there and it was fairly easy to get a poultice. Adam carefully wrapped bandages soaked in the poultice around Evelyn's hands. She winced once or twice, but Adam was attentive enough to not cause too much pain.
With the first part done, Adam and Evelyn continued on to Segen's house. Adam walked up and knocked on the door. A short while later, Segen opened the door from the other side. Surprise dawned upon his face as he cried: “Uncle!”
Segen gave Adam a brief welcoming hug as he asked: “What's the occasion of dropping by?”
Adam gave a depressing sigh as he responded: “Nothing good.”
Segen shook his head as he said: “When are you going to stop getting bad things attracted to you? Come in and let's talk.”
Segen led them to the living room of his house. There, Annette was holding onto the side of a sofa to help her stand. She looked at Adam and greeted him with a smile: “Hi, Adam. I heard you and Segen talking at the door.”
Adam replied back with a smile: “It has been a while Annette. I haven't visited in a while. I should have come sooner.”
Segen quickly went by Annette's side and helped her sit back down. As they did this, Adam's eyes reflected some sorrow. Annette only had a few years left in her life. Segen would live longer, but he too would eventually die. He simply didn't have the talent to progress along his path as a spiritualist until he became a dragon. Even if Adam managed to save them from the war, he would still loose them before too long...
Adam quickly tossed those depressing thoughts to the back of his mind. Right now the two of them were alive. He couldn't look at them with sorrow while they were still alive! He had to cherish them now.
Instead of getting right into talking about the war, Adam and Segen caught up with one another. It hadn't been too long since Adam's last visit, only around a year. However, it had felt like a long time to Adam. Segen then finally asked: “So, what is the trouble that has brought you to me?”
Adam sighed and began to describe he recent journey through the plane of death and to the sea of souls which led to the truth behind the many recent wars and the terrible events that are to follow. Segen also sighed after hearing everything: “This really is terrible. Frieden is part of the Kingdom of Immermehr. We haven't had any wars yet, but our relations with our surrounding neighbors have started to deteriorate...”
Adam nodded. “This is happening everywhere. This is likely influence from the Church of Spirits and cults that follow death spirits vying against one another.”
Segen was silent for a time. Then he said: “You're trying to stop all of this on your own, aren't you? Is there anything I can do to help?”
Adam gave a small smile. “Thanks for the offer, but there isn't really any way you can help. I have already been trying loads of different things, with no success. Just doing your best to stay out of the war is all I can ask for.”
Segen nodded: “I'm no good at fighting, just look at how I lost my arm all those years ago! I won't join any war, unless they bring the fight to my door step and that's the only way to survive. In the meantime, don't forget to ask for help if you figure something out. I know you always like to do things by yourself, but you can't accomplish much that way.”
“You think I don't know it?” Adam responded. “There are two groups who could put a stop to all of this but they won't agree to it! One group wants to take advantage of the situation and the other group wants to defend against the first. They won't work together so they won't work with me on this...”
Segen was surprised by Adam's words. “What two groups would be able to stop something of this scale?”
“...Dragons.”
Adam responded with only one word that left Segen in silence. Adam hadn't told Segen about him being a dragon since that information wouldn't be best to spread around. Adam hadn't even mentioned them when he visited last.
Segen then said: “Well, if we can't do anything by talking about it, let's just leave it be! Rather than that... I see you're traveling with Evelyn alone now?”
Against Segen's coy question, Adam evasively answered with a quick: “Maybe.”
Segen clucked his tongue and said with a shake of his head: “Uncle, you sly dog!”
“Shut it! Why does everyone have to make fun of me whenever I start a relationship!”
Segen laughed and then pointed at Adam while saying in jest: “Evelyn, do you even know how old this guy is!?”
Adam defensively responded: “Of course she does!”
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Evelyn only smiled on. She could sense the familial ties as Segen and Adam talked. This was kind of similar to what her parents did when they got back to the village before. The rest of the day held the same charm of visiting old friends and family. They no longer talked about the war. Everything that they needed to say was already said, so they didn't dwell on it. That night, Adam managed to go to sleep with hardly a worry in his mind.
In the middle of the night, Adam suddenly awoke with a bad premonition in his mind! He immediately sat up and closed his eyes. It was faint, but it was just there enough for Adam to discern it: 'A portal is in the process of opening nearby!'
Adam immediately rolled out of bed and quickly dressed. As he walked out of his room, Evelyn crept out of the room next to his. Noticing Adam was already up and dressed, she asked: “So there really is something going on? I can't tell what it is.”
Adam nodded. Surprisingly, Segen also popped out of his room which was only a small distance away from their guest rooms. The fluctuations from opening a portal was enough to set any spiritualist's senses ablaze. However, many would not know what it meant unless they had experienced being next to an open portal before. Segen simply asked Adam: “What's going on?”
Adam shook his head: “It doesn't make sense, but someone is trying to open a portal nearby! With so many spiritualists in this city, there is no way this could be considered a sneak atta-”
Adam suddenly stopped as his skin tingled and he started to hear more and more sounds join with the first. There was more than one portal! Adam went from his sudden stop to suddenly talking again: “It's not a sneak attack, it's an all out assault with ghouls leading the charge!”
As Adam finished talking, it had already started with a single series of sounds: Fwish, BOOM! The sound of a portal opening exploded across the city waking most everyone up. Segen quickly went back to his room: “Annette, stay here for a second. Let me figure out what's going on.”
At the same time, Adam and Evelyn rushed out of the house with Segen joining them shortly after. In the distance, one could see a giant pillar of green Flame stretching up into the sky. It was a portal to the spirit plane of wind! Just as they came out, another series of sounds was quickly issued: Fwish, BOOM! Fwish, BOOM! Fwish, BOOM! Fwish, BOOM! Four more pillars of fire stretched up into the sky, each a different color. There was blue, brown, red... and black!
Segen stared speechless at these pillars of fire. Around them, others were coming out of their own houses. Some were similarly speechless, others were screaming in terror. Adam looked toward Segen: “Go protect Annette. We will take care of these portals!”
Segen numbly stared back at Adam. His mind was in turmoil: 'Uncle Adam is strong, but he can't be strong enough to deal with all of this!'
He wanted to believe in Adam, but panic was striking his heart. But then, under Segen's gaze, Adam and Evelyn nodded in some sort of understanding. The two leaped into the air and Dragon-Formed! They were not going to stand by and let this attack happen to a city full of innocents!
With a sudden roar that silenced everyone close to them, two dragons launched themselves into the sky! Everyone had been in their own panic or thoughts. No one besides Segen had seen the two suddenly transform. To them, it was as though two dragons had appeared out of nowhere! For many, this increased their panic as they were unsure if the dragons would also be attacking the city.
Many thoughts raced across Segen's mind. A few things started to add up together. Adam had undergone a full body transformation. He didn't detail how it had happened, but Segen now believed becoming a dragon had something to do with it. Dragons were mysterious and nearly unfathomable, so it made some sense. Segen also came to believe: 'Maybe Adam really does have the strength to stop this!'
Segen ran back inside the house to Annette and to tell her everything would be all right.
Adam and Evelyn first went to the wind portal, as it was the first to open. Adam sent: “We have to contain this as fast as possible! The longer we take, the more ghouls that will come out!”
Evelyn nodded in agreement. “I will work on the ghouls, you concentrate on the portals.”
With a vague plan in mind, the two quickly sped up and found themselves at the wind portal. It felt like a gale was blowing out from the portal as a small horde of ghouls poured out from the portal and headed straight toward the city. Having arrived, Adam quite simply sent a bolt of lighting straight at the heart of the portal! These portals were man made. Unlike a portal stone, they would not explode with collected spirit essence. Instead, the portal collapsed in on itself as the cycle of spirit essence that was sustaining the portal was broken!
At the same time, Evelyn swept the ground with her fire! The ghouls screamed for but a few moments before they were burnt to a crisp. Evelyn slightly shuddered at the screams and they would likely haunt her for some time. However, there was more work to be done! With her control over fire, she extinguished the fire when its task was done, preventing it from spreading out through the city.
Adam and Evelyn quickly jumped from one portal to the next, repeating what happened with the first. By the time the city guard and what army was garrisoned at the city had managed to put themselves together and plan a defense, Adam and Evelyn were already finishing up the last portal! This left the army and the guards in an awkward spot. They had reports of the dragons' help, but how were they to respond? Adam and Evelyn took the initiative again and quite simply... flew away. With so many eyes on them, they would not be able to safely Human-Form in the city. Adam also wanted to scout around to see if there was an enemy army somewhere close at hand on stand-by
In the end, Adam found no sign of a large army. It seemed that whoever was attacking only planned to use ghouls on the city. After resuming their Human-Forms a small distance away, Adam and Evelyn quickly went back to Frieden. The ground they walked on was scorched black by Evelyn's fire and the burnt remains of ghouls were littered everywhere... it was a horrendous sight. Looking at it, Evelyn couldn't help but think of those screams and shuddered once again. She never like fighting and to cause such pain that even ghouls would cry out in some form of agony... Evelyn paled at the thought.
To try and comfort her, Adam gently squeezed her hand while keeping in mind her burns. They walked as fast as they could through the scorched land. In the city, there were still people running everywhere. Even though the attack was done, everyone was still scared. 'Why did the attack happen?' and 'Would there be more?' were the questions on their minds.
To pull her mind away from thoughts about the screaming ghouls, Evelyn also asked: “What do you think is going on, Adam?”
Adam wavered a moment before saying: “...I fear that the war has escalated another step... We will likely see more and more wars and attacks utilize ghouls... it is the next step toward the end!”
Evelyn remained silent. She couldn't refute Adam's words as she had the same fears that this was true. She feared even more to agree with him.
Before too long, they were back at Segen's house. Segen was anxiously waiting for them in his living room with Annette. When the two finally came back, Segen quickly stood up he wasn't quite sure where to start out, so he chose: “I hear everything has stopped.”
Adam nodded and then said: “Segen, we are going to have to leave tomorrow. This attack was big and may mean more like it will happen else where. We need to figure out what is going on and if we can stop it, or at least slow it down.”
Segen slowly nodded. “Let me help you prepare.”
Segen helped Adam and Evelyn prepare a few simple things. They then tried to sleep for a few scant hours before leaving in the morning.
Adam turned to Segen: “Take care of yourself, okay?”
Segen shook his head: “I'm the one that should be saying that. You will be going where there is danger... good luck, Uncle.”
Adam and Segen briefly hugged, then it was time to leave. They had to once again cross the scorched land, but it was a little better this time. The army and the city guard had already worked on carefully disposing of the ghoul corpses. Where the main road was, there was none to be seen.
The main road was actually quite busy that morning. It was full of people who were all geared up for travel. Many felt the need to leave the city if it was a target for attack. Unfortunately, if things were indeed escalating with the war between spirits, no where would be safe. Soon, such attacks would be happening everywhere!
Due to the sudden flux of traffic along the road, it took quite a while for Adam and Evelyn to find a place where they could Dragon-Form. Once they had, they quickly flew north. Their goal was the northern village where they could possibly get more information on what was currently going on with the war...